Starting and Ending Class

When starting class in a Japanese classroom (up through high school), every student stands up and bows to show respect to the teacher. When the bell rings, a predesignated student will lead the process with the following instructions.

Kana

Romaji

Meaning

1.

きりつ

Kiritsu

Stand up

2.

きをつけ

Ki o tsuke

Attention

3.

れい

Rei

Bow

4.

ちゃくせき

Chakuseki

Sit down

Note: some of the vowels in these expressions are devoiced – can you figure out which ones?

The teacher will generally bow too, and then begin class. When the bell rings to end class, the ritual repeats.

Note that there is some variance – ki o tsuke or chakuseki might be omitted, and in some areas the phrases themselves may be different.

Also, if you are taking a college Japanese course, you may never encounter these expressions at all. Why? Because they aren’t used in college in Japan either – there’s less of a perceived need for imposing order in a college classroom.

Commands

You’ll learn how to make commands out of any verb later on, but for now here are a few you should know.

Don’t concern yourself with the conjugation pattern right now, but you should be aware that a verb ending with “te” can be used as a command (among other things), and the “kudasai” afterwords means something like “do for me” and makes the command polite.

Other Expressions

Here are a few common requests that you might make as a student.

Kana

Romaji

Meaning

トイレに いっても いいですか。

Toire ni itte mo ii desu ka?

Can I go to the bathroom?

みずを のんでも いいですか。

Mizu o nonde mo ii desu ka?

Can I drink water? (= go get a drink)

はい、 いいです。

Hai, ii desu.

Yes, that’s fine.

いいえ、 だめです。

Iie, dame desu.

No, that’s not OK.

Here, the adjective ii means “good” or “OK”, and dame means “no good”. The te mo (or de mo) part literally means “even if I…” and ii desu ka means “is it alright?”. So a request in Japanese is always of the form “Is it alright if I…”.